Countenance for the Fallible Infallible: Rewrite
by Eri Kitsune
Summary: The jewel completed, Kagome is betrayed but one she loved. On the run she accepts help from an unlikely source, but how long will it be before their two personalities clash?


This is the rewrite for CFI, which will be followed by updates. I hope.

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, but you already knew that didn't you?

Countenance for the Fallible Infallible

Chapter One: Of Consequences and Betrayal

Kagome Higurashi was eighteen years old. Her hair was shoulder length and black, her eyes were brown. She was an ordinary Japanese girl, or had been up until her fifteenth birthday arrived. On that day she had been sucked into a life full of danger and adventure, enemies and friends. Time travel was a daily event as she traversed from the twentieth century to the feudal era.

But today was very different; today she had finally completed her mission. The shards of the shikon jewel had all been gathered and Naraku had been slain. She stood, wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, she had long ago stopped wearing her school uniform and donned more practical clothing, next to Kaede's village. Or it had once been Kaede's village. It was now Kimiko's village. Kimiko was the miko who had taken over the protection of the village after elderly Kaede's death last year.

Inuyasha stood in front of her as she waited for him to tell her his wish so they could use the shikon jewel to grant it and then its power would be spent. She had spent the last few days trying to convince him not to wish for his demonhood. No one had ever found happiness from using the sacred jewel to meet their own ends. It was now that she'd see if any of it had gotten through to him.

"Kagome, I know what I want to wish for." He said, not looking her in the eyes. She looked at him sadly; it sounded as though he would still wish to become a full demon. Inuyasha looked behind him into the forest. The group assembled next to the graveyards looked on in shock as Kikyo walked out of the trees… and into Inuyasha's arms. "I want to bring Kikyo back."

Kikyo gave Kagome a smug smirk when Inuyasha wrapped his arms around her waist. The time travelling girl stared in shock and her knees buckled beneath her.

__

Why? How could he do this to me? He told me he loved me damn it! She thought as tears welled in her eyes. She forced them back and looked Inuyasha dead in the face.

"Inuyasha…" he refused to look at her. "Inuyasha." He remained determined to avoid her eyes. "If the shikon grants that wish, I'll die." She waited to see what effect that would have on him. She thought he might have at least winced at hearing it, but no. He just continued to stare resolutely at the ground. He showed no guilt, gave no apology, not even any acknowledgement that he had so much as heard her. He just stood there wrapped around his dead lover.

"You hate me so much that you would wish me dead." She said her voice dripping with malice. Her anger radiating out from her aura in waves.

"No! Kagome I don't hate you! It's just… I love Kikyo." He said, speaking finally.

__

Damn him. Damn him! How can he do this to me? Ask this of me? At the very least I thought we were friends!

"I see. Very well, let's get this over with." She said standing stiffly and brushing off her jeans.

"No! Kagome, don't do it! Please!" Shippou burst out tearfully. She was the closest thing he had to a mother or a big sister. She couldn't leave him; not like this. It was all because of Inuyasha. "I hate you!" he screeched turning to the hanyou that had been his traveling companion for the past few years. "Inuyasha you bastard!"

"Shippou." Kagome's voice was so quiet that he almost missed it. "You're to young to use that language. Don't let… him… corrupt you." She said carefully sidestepping Inuyasha's name.

"B-but Kagome." The little fox demon stuttered, tears still streaming down his face.

Kagome lifted her eyes to look at him, the fox kit she had mothered for the past three years. He would be losing another parent today. She shifted her gaze to Sango, the girl whom she considered a sister, standing sobbing into Miroku's chest. Miroku was crying too, to her surprise. She'd only seen him cry on rare occasions. He was the calm, strong-hearted one, the pillar of strength and the voice of wisdom… usually. He always kept his emotions mostly to himself. She looked at the smug Kikyo standing with an Inuyasha that still wouldn't meet her eyes, the grave of Kaede, the body of Kohaku, unburied as of yet, and then back to Sango. Her mind was made up now, and she was ready.

Kagome stepped backwards from the group and clasped the jewel between her hands. Sango watched her eyes locked with Kagome begging her silently not to do it. Then Kagome closed her eyes and the jewel began to resonate with a faint pink aura. The light grew until it enveloped its keeper and the sound of a heartbeat seemed to echo forth from it.

__

"Midoriko… your fight… may finally… come to its conclusion… shikon jewel… please hear… my wish…"

Kagome's voice sounded strange from within the shimmering cornucopia of light. Sango said a quiet plea, "No…" but it was strangled by her tears and was voiced but a breath above a whisper. Her family was gone again. All she had left was Miroku. Wait, when has she started thinking of the houshi as family? That didn't matter now. Kagome mattered now.

As Kagome finished the last word of her prayer the pink light exploded and encompassed the entire village. The light faded slowly and when it did Kagome fell to her knees. She was staring at the jewel. She could sense, she _knew_ that it was nothing but a pink plastic bead. Midoriko's soul was now at rest and its power had been broken. She felt weak, physically, but at the same time could feel new energies coursing through her.

As the rest of those assembled looked on in awe, Kikyo watched to scene frowning. She felt no different. She looked at Inuyasha to him staring at her in concern. The question _'Did it work?'_ reflected in his eyes. It couldn't have worked, not if her reincarnation was still living. It attention as caught as the grave sights glowed pink once more.

Sango gasped and would've run headlong into the light to get to her brother's body if Miroku hadn't been holding her tightly around the waist. "Let me go! Kohaku!" she cried struggling to break free of his hold. Once the light faded he released her and she ran to her brother's body. The light hadn't hurt him; they could still bury him properly. She lay one hand against his cheek sadly, then paused. His body was warm, was that because of the light? Sango looked him over carefully. The blue in his cheeks had receded and she thought she could feel him breathing. She laid her head down on his chest and heard the unmistakable beating of a heart. He was alive.

"Oh gods, thank you, Kagome!" she choked out tearfully gathering her brother into her arms. A heart beat…

Kikyo watched the scene in her usual cold manner. If the boy was alive once more, that must mean… Silently she grasped Inuyasha's wrist with her right hand and used his claws to slit the skin of her left arm. Dust and dirt escaped the wound before it slowly closed back up. The stupid wretch had made the wrong wish.

Inuyasha watched this with saddened eyes. Kikyo was still not alive again. Could they still be together now? "Why, Kagome? Why don't you want me to be happy?" He shrunk a little under the glare the reincarnated miko leveled on him and Kikyo made a small noise of disgust.

"How _dare_ you!" Kagome said angrily. "How can you ask me that when your wish causes my death!" her voice raised to a shout as she finally said something that had been building inside of her for a long time. " Did you ever stop to think why she wanted you to wish on the jewel in the first place? Why she was obsessed with your becoming human? She even said it herself Inuyasha! If you were to make that wish on the jewel she could be a normal human and live a normal life. You were _convenient_ Inuyasha. She didn't love you for who you were, she loved you for what you could be, what you could do for her! Open your eyes you idiot!" With that finally off her chest Kagome whirled about and ran into the village before the tears that threatened to spill ran down her cheeks.

"T-that's not true, right Kikyo? Kikyo?" he said with desperation creeping into his voice when she did not answer him. Kikyo was busy staring after the retreating form of Kagome. Once again she was robbed of her chance to be a normal human. The girl would pay.

"Inuyasha," she said quietly, "she has robbed us of our chance at happiness. Are you going to let her get away with that?" Her voice was quiet and controlled as she continued to stare off into the direction the girl had run off to.

__

Am I going to let her get away with it? But what can I do? I can't kill her, I won't kill her, I just can't… there has to be something… but what? "The well." _What? _"Inuyasha the well!" Kikyo said impatiently, breaking into his thoughts.

Kikyo bit back a growl of frustration has he looked at her with confusion etched onto his face. "What?" he said finally.

__

What a moron! How many times will I have to say it! "The well, Inuyasha! Destroy it! It's the perfect revenge!" _I can kill her myself later._

"The well…?" _But could I really do that to her? Cut her off from her time, her family? For Kikyo, for Kikyo I could do it. I will. I'll destroy the well!_ "Okay, Kikyo. I'll do it."

It didn't take long for them to destroy the well. She had cried, certainly and for hours and hours, but now her eyes were dry. She trudged sullenly through the forest; she had finished with the tears many miles ago. Sango, Miroku, and Shippou remained in Kaede's village, for she would always call it that, along with Inuyasha and Kikyo. She could not stay, not after what had happened. She had been in love with him, she admitted it, and he had wanted her to give up her soul to the undead priestess. His selfishness had angered everyone, and her friends remained loyal to her. But she couldn't stay, especially when she knew Kikyo planned her demise… along with Inuyasha.

Kagome paused just outside of a clearing filled with moonlight, the branches casting eerie patterns that fringed the outer edge of the trees. She whirled around suddenly her bow draw and an arrow notched at the ready in one fluid motion. If there was one thing that she had learned, it was how to use that bow. _Someone's there! Who is it, it cant' be them, they can't be after me again already! But it is a demon… a strong one, familiar too._

"Come out of hiding." She said steadily. Silence gnawed at her confidence. With a noise a bit like a growl she shouted, "I know you're there so just come out already! If you're after the jewel you can have it, it's worthless now! If not, stop being a coward and just get out here!" She whirled again as her target leaped high over head and landed in the center of the clearing before her. "Sesshoumaru." She muttered tightening the grip on her bow.

(unfinished)


End file.
